4 ms·

Detroit Is Stomping Silicon Valley in the Self-Driving Car Race

7 points by rinze 10y ago

wmil 10y ago
I'm actually surprised that a limited traffic jam autopilot isn't out yet. It'd be enormously helpful to a lot of people.
- blacksmith_tb 10y ago
  My Prius Prime has an automatic radar cruise control which works pretty well in traffic jams - it will speed up and slow down with the car in front of it (including coming to a stop and starting again). The only problem is that even at the closest of the following distances it will let you select, it hangs back a bit, which encourages other drivers to try and cram themselves in (which then causes the Toyota to fall back again, and on and on). Still, fairly effective.
muninn_ 10y ago
This was a key quote (either from the article or one of the linked articles) "“It’s a lot easier for the company that actually has the infrastructure to create vehicles to recreate what Uber’s done, than the other way around,” Abuelsamid says." This is the key. There are Uber clones done by kids in basements. There aren't Ford 150 pickup clones.
jmathai 10y ago
Not everyone trying to make self-driving cars a reality aren't looking to enter the manufacturing and distribution business though. There's a case to be made that is self-driving technology becomes commoditized then GM, Ford, etc. will be the "winners". I don't think that's the assumption the non-manufacturing companies are operating under. Time will tell.
tomtheelder 10y ago
I think this is a decent article but the headline is horribly editorialized. The study in question makes some good points, but it really is just one guess at how things will go. A good example is the discussion of Waymo: > Waymo, by comparison, scores top marks for technology but drags in the production strategy and sales, marketing, and distribution buckets. The company plans to work with legacy automakers to put its tech in cars, but has not yet struck any major deals. “They have almost every piece of this—except the product strategy,” says Abuelsamid. Is the implication that Waymo will just leap into first as soon as it strikes a deal with a legacy auto maker? The article admits that the study had massive movements between this years and last, partly due to deals and the like. This headline is definitely not HN quality.

7 points by rinze 10y ago

wmil 10y ago

I'm actually surprised that a limited traffic jam autopilot isn't out yet. It'd be enormously helpful to a lot of people.

blacksmith_tb 10y ago
My Prius Prime has an automatic radar cruise control which works pretty well in traffic jams - it will speed up and slow down with the car in front of it (including coming to a stop and starting again). The only problem is that even at the closest of the following distances it will let you select, it hangs back a bit, which encourages other drivers to try and cram themselves in (which then causes the Toyota to fall back again, and on and on). Still, fairly effective.

muninn_ 10y ago

This was a key quote (either from the article or one of the linked articles) "“It’s a lot easier for the company that actually has the infrastructure to create vehicles to recreate what Uber’s done, than the other way around,” Abuelsamid says." This is the key. There are Uber clones done by kids in basements. There aren't Ford 150 pickup clones.

jmathai 10y ago

Not everyone trying to make self-driving cars a reality aren't looking to enter the manufacturing and distribution business though. There's a case to be made that is self-driving technology becomes commoditized then GM, Ford, etc. will be the "winners". I don't think that's the assumption the non-manufacturing companies are operating under. Time will tell.

tomtheelder 10y ago

I think this is a decent article but the headline is horribly editorialized. The study in question makes some good points, but it really is just one guess at how things will go. A good example is the discussion of Waymo: > Waymo, by comparison, scores top marks for technology but drags in the production strategy and sales, marketing, and distribution buckets. The company plans to work with legacy automakers to put its tech in cars, but has not yet struck any major deals. “They have almost every piece of this—except the product strategy,” says Abuelsamid. Is the implication that Waymo will just leap into first as soon as it strikes a deal with a legacy auto maker? The article admits that the study had massive movements between this years and last, partly due to deals and the like. This headline is definitely not HN quality.